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New $100 Bills Now Available

Newly redesigned $100 notes lay in stacks at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on May 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. The one hundred dollar bills will be released this fall and has new security features, such as a duplicating portrait of Benjamin Franklin and microprinting added to make the bill more difficult to counterfeit. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

“It’s what we consider the most sophisticated U.S. bank note ever released into circulation,” said Paul Graham of the Miami Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

After a decade of development and more than two years of delays because of production problems, $3.5 billion worth of bills were printed.

“We will begin paying out these notes to financial institutions both domestically and internationally,” said Graham.

Each note costs 12.8 cents to make which is about a nickel more than the old ones.

Some people are already trading in for the updated cash.

The fresh printed currency still has Benjamin Franklin’s face on the front and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on the back but there are a lot of new high-tech changes.

“As technology increases, so do counterfeiters, so our redesign process is to stay ahead of counterfeiters,” explained Graham.

The new bill has several new security features designed to make it more difficult for users to authenticate and counterfeiters to replicate. Those measures include a blue, 3-D security ribbon, as well as color-shifting ink that changes from copper to green when the note is tilted. That ink can be found on a large “100” on the back of the bill, on one of the “100’s” on the front, and on a new image of an ink well that’s also on the front.

While Benjamin Franklin’s image is the same, like all the other newly designed currencies, it will no longer be surrounded by a dark oval.

The current design for the $100, in circulation since 1996, as well as all previous designs, will still be legal tender, and will likely still be given out to customers by banks for some time to come. But when banks request $100 bills from the Federal Reserve, they’ll only receive the new design starting Tuesday.

The government has redesigned the $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills during the last decade to add security features. The $1 remains the only bill not to get a makeover.